Internationalizationing

We have users and potential users all over the globe. How can we make our apps accessible and comfortable for those in any local? This short talk goes over the basics of what internationalization is and what you need to consider when working towards it.

Transcript

1. INTERNATIONALIZATION-ING
   INTERNATIONALIZATION
   (i18n)
   Victoria Gonda
   

   View Slide

2. WHAT IS INTERNATIONALIZATION?
   • Localization – Providing native language translations.
   • Having both RTL and LTR layouts and icons.
   • Using mindful abbreviations and date/time formats.
   • Watching iconography semantics.
   

   View Slide

3. WHY INTERNATIONALIZATION
   • Makes the product accessible to more people.
   • Also makes it more comfortable for other people.
   

   View Slide

4. LOCALIZATION
   • Often the most obvious part of i18n.
   • Requires each of your user facing strings are referenced from a string
   resources file.
   • Then there are alternates for each of these strings for each language
   you support.
   

   View Slide

5. TECHNICAL
   values/strings.xml values-es/strings.xml
   

   View Slide

6. View Slide

7. ABBREVIATIONS AND FORMATS
   • Not everyone uses and knows the same abbreviations.
   • People prefer different date and time formats.
   • If you can display something in a user’s currency the message is
   understood better.
   

   View Slide

8. RIGHT-TO-LEFT
   • Support right aligned text
   • Also reverse parts of layouts and breadcrumbs
   • Reverse directional icons and icons showing text direction
   

   View Slide

9. View Slide

10. ICONOGRAPHY SEMANTICS
    • Symbols might not mean the same thing in all cultures
    • Watch for icons with currency and letters
    

    View Slide

11. TESTING
    • Change language in browser
    • Try RTL
    • Ask someone from another part of the world for their thoughts!
    

    View Slide

12. WHAT NOW?
    • Short i18n checklist: https://www.w3.org/International/techniques/
    shortchecklist.html
    • RTL for web: https://www.upwork.com/hiring/for-clients/web-design-
    for-rtl-languages-basics/
    • i18n checker: http://validator.w3.org/i18n-checker/
    

    View Slide

13. THANKS!
    VICTORIA GONDA
    

    View Slide